Operation Clean Hands continues in Japan. Two former executives of a company sponsor of the Tokyo Olympics were sentenced Thursday to suspended prison sentences by the Japanese justice, as part of a vast corruption scandal around the event.

The affair began to erupt last summer, a year after the Games were finally held in 2021 instead of 2020 and almost behind closed doors due to the pandemic, and cast a shadow over Sapporo's bid for the 2030 Winter Olympics.

100,000 euros for a member of the organizing committee

Shigeharu Hisamatsu, 64, a former head of Japanese advertising agency ADK, was given an 18-month suspended sentence. His former collaborator Toshiaki Tada, 61, was given a one-year suspended sentence. During their first hearing in March, the two men did not contest the corruption of a member of the organizing committee of the Games of which they were accused. They were arrested in October along with former ADK president Shinichi Ueno.

According to local media, the latter had admitted in February in court to have paid the equivalent of about 100,000 euros to Haruyuki Takahashi, a former member of the organizing committee of the Tokyo Games who claims his innocence, according to the press.



Last month, the first conviction in the scandal was handed down to the former chairman of Japanese business suits store chain Aoki Holdings, which is also a sponsor of the Olympics. Hironori Aoki, 84, received a 30-month suspended sentence.

Several other companies in the country have been splashed by this case, which has reflected on Sapporo's bid for the 2030 Winter Olympics. Japanese Olympic Committee President Yasuhiro Yamashita said last month that it would be "difficult to move forward" for Sapporo "without getting the understanding of the people."

  • Sport
  • Tokyo 2021 Olympics
  • Olympic Games
  • Japan
  • Corruption
  • Justice